THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. January is the time of year when many
of us make New Year's resolutions, and work hard to keep them. Today, I
want to talk about steps we're taking to keep a resolution of mine --
making sure women and men get the health care they need to have strong
children and healthy families.

First, our administration has worked hard to make sure all women have
access to prenatal care. We know when women get medical attention before a
baby is born, that child is much more likely to be born healthy. And good
health is the most precious gift we can offer a child or a family.

Second, we worked with Congress to make sure that every woman covered
by federal government health insurance has reproductive health care
coverage -- including prescription contraceptives. That was a significant
step for more than a million American women, and it set a standard for
insurance coverage around the country.

Third, when I took office, we faced an epidemic of teen pregnancy --
children having children. Over the last seven years, we have reached out
to community groups, schools and health professionals working in an amazing
network of American citizens from all walks of life. And, together, the
American people have cut teen pregnancy by 15 percent.

Fourth, we've made a broad range of family planning and sex education
programs more widely available for all Americans. And by making sure women
have family planning choices, we are helping to make abortion more rare.

Today I am glad to announce we will be increasing funds for family
planning and reproductive health care by $35 million next year. My budget
for 2001 will include $274 million in grants for clinics and
community-based health services that reach more than 5 million women and
families.

That money will help make contraceptives available, and keep them
affordable. It will fund counseling for teenagers, and support educational
programs that encourage young people to postpone sexual activity. It will
help more than 4,600 clinics screen for cancer, AIDS and other diseases.
And it will fund partnerships with community organizations and health care
professionals who are reaching out to teenagers and others at risk.

These services make a critical difference in people's lives. They
help working women who otherwise could not afford medical tests that may
save their lives. They help AIDS patients who desperately need counseling
and assistance. They provide support and information to young people who
may not know the basics of caring for a newborn child. They give women
access to the full range of reproductive health care -- before and during
pregnancy. It's in the interest of every American that no one miss out on
this kind of care -- and that no child miss the chance for a healthy start.

America has also been a leader in providing health and family planning
assistance for women and families in developing countries. We do this
because it's right, and because it will help build the kind of world we
want for our own children.

Around the world, 150 million women would like to choose the timing of
their pregnancies, but have no access to family planning of any kind. In
the developing world, the complications of pregnancy kill more than one
woman every single minute, because so many lack the most basic health care.
These are personal tragedies, and they have profound consequences for
families and communities. Where children are born healthy, and mothers and
families gain power over their lives, communities are stronger. Economic
progress is faster. And the future is brighter for everyone.

My budget for 2001 will increase funding for international family
planning by almost $170 million. I am asking Congress to support these
funds, and to provide them without restrictions that hamper the work of
family planning organizations, and even bar them from discussing or
debating reproductive health policies.

We all agree that we want to save lives, help women and children stay
healthy and empower families to take responsibility for their own choices.
Supporting reproductive health and family planning is one of the very best
ways to do that. We know it works. At home and abroad, we don't have a
woman's life -- or a child's healthy start -- to waste.